Having made a career – or semblance of one – on nudie-cutie films, director Sheldon Meyer gets it in his head that he wants to outgross and out-gross H.G. Lewis’ indie gorefest BLOOD FEAST. So in a tiny town in Florida in 1965, he sets out to make CRIMSON ORGY, in Austin Williams’ debut novel of the same name.
The low-budget film proves costly, in more ways than one: The crew has run afoul of the local law enforcement, a main actor is an active alcoholic and Meyer is having trouble keeping his leading lady in the dark about the film’s true subject, trying to play it off as a romantic mystery … rather than the rumored snuff film it will turn out to be, as the chilling prologue tells us.
There’s also a major storm coming, but even cataclysmic weather has nothing in the disaster department on “The Dismemberer,” a prop for the film’s final shot. Wait’ll you meet that.
In telling us upfront that Meyer’s film was unfinished and supposedly cursed – only to surface in grainy bootlegs after decades of whispered rumors – you’d think CRIMSON ORGY would be void of tension. Instead, Williams’ choice to do so keeps on edge. Whereas opening chapters of other novels would settle us in, we’re already impatiently wondering, “What the hell happened?”
Fans of urban legends, splatter cinema and sharp tools will want to get it on with CRIMSON ORGY. Williams’ novel pays respect to the cinematic trail blazed by the likes of Lewis, with sex, storms and suspense. –Rod Lott
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- No Focus: Punk on Film
- Scary Movies
